The days of small-batch whiskey and gin being delivered to your doorstep are almost over.
An extensive lobbying effort to kill a proposal that would allow craft liquor distillers to keep shipping their products to California customers underscores how wealthy and powerful interests influence policy among lawmakers, writes CalMatters’ Ryan Sabalow.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order allowing craft distillers to ship spirits to their customers’ homes. Legislators have kept passing laws to extend the temporary policy, with the latest expiring Dec. 31.
One Sacramento-area Republican is trying to make the policy permanent, but national alcohol distributors, truck drivers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and California’s wine industry are working behind the scenes to spike the plan.
As alcohol consumption falls across the country, opponents insist they aren’t trying to stamp out small competitors. Though it’s unclear how much these groups spent on specific legislation, they have given at least $11 million to California politicians since 2000, including at least $738,000 at the start of the current two-year legislative session, according to CalMatters’ Digital Democracy database.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas received at least $108,000 in donations over the years from the proposal’s opponents; Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón received at least $33,000; and Sen. Susan Rubio and Assemblymember Blanca Rubio — sisters who oversee the committees regulating California’s alcohol industry — received at least $65,000 and $129,000, respectively.
Meanwhile, California’s craft distillers reported spending $53,000 on lobbying this year. In anticipation of the plan’s likely failure, Cris Steller, the acting executive director of the California Distillers Association and the owner of two distilleries in El Dorado Hills, has started pulling back on shipping bottles to customers.
- Steller: “I don’t want to keep putting money into a program that’s going to get yanked.”
CalMatters events: CalMatters and inewsource are hosting a conversation on Aug. 13 in San Ysidro about the Tijuana River contamination crisis, an environmental emergency affecting millions on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Register here.
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CHP officer regains job after OT scandal
The California Highway Patrol this week lost a six-year effort to fire a Los Angeles officer who fraudulently claimed overtime at a station where dozens of his colleagues routinely billed the state for hours they didn’t work.
As CalMatters’ Nigel Duara explains, Nathaniel Partridge was among dozens of officers in the East L.A. patrol division that CHP disciplined in 2020, when the department learned of inconsistent overtime practices involving hundreds of hours worth of inflated pay totaling more than $200,000.
Felony criminal charges the attorney general filed against 54 of the officers mostly did not hold up in court. Most recently, the 2nd District Court of Appeal found a lesser penalty of a one-year suspension without pay was sufficient discipline for Partridge, and that he did not appear to intentionally deceive his employer.
The ripple effect of Medicaid cuts
Though low-income patients are expected to be hit the hardest by looming cuts to Medicaid, private insurance holders will also feel the effects through higher costs and strained resources, reports CalMatters’ Kristen Hwang.
Roughly 2.2 million Californians are expected to lose their insurance by 2030 due to the cuts in President Donald Trump’s 2025 spending law. Hospitals cannot refuse anybody who comes into the emergency room, so when more patients become uninsured, uncompensated care is anticipated to jump. That could mean from $2 billion to $4 billion each year, according to the California Hospital Association
In preparation for federal and state cuts, California hospitals have already laid off more than 3,000 workers. Financially vulnerable hospitals are likely to shut down altogether.
California Voices
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: The California Public Employees Retirement System posted high earnings last month, which could help public safety state workers negotiate for higher pensions.
Two views on Proposition 39, a ballot measure to require identification for voting:
The measure would put a check on the state’s voting system during a time when public trust in institutions is low, and help remove doubt in California’s election system, writes Bill Jones, a former California secretary of state.
Voter fraud is exceedingly rare, and Prop. 39 is not only redundant but it would also add barriers for voters and have major fiscal impacts to California taxpayers, writes Marisol Ramirez, a member of the Inland Empire Latino Giving Circle.
Other things worth your time:
What David Ellison is really up to in new PR campaign for Warner Bros. deal // The Hollywood Reporter (free)
SoCal shelter paid Hawaii-based CEO $1.6M over two years // Los Angeles Times (paywall)
How ICE raids boosted ridership on LAUSD buses // LAist (free)
Car wash workers cope with lingering impacts of SoCal ICE raids // Capital & Main (free)
How to get a job as a CA state worker // Abridged (free)
No new Uber tax in Disneyland. Anaheim passes on rideshare tax // The Orange County Register (gift link)
Bonta accuses DuPont of ‘corporate shell game’ to dodge PFAS cleanup in CA // Los Angeles Times (paywall)
West Nile virus infects San Joaquin County resident; 2 CA deaths confirmed // Stocktonia (free)
After nearly four decades, Pit River Tribe member returns home // Shasta Scout (free)
Fed up with romance. Why young people are giving up on love. The Atlantic (gift link)
